Dennis Bakhuis

Dive site · wreck · Bonaire National Marine Park

🇧🇶 Hilma Hooker

Kralendijk, Bonaire, Bonaire

A drug runner with eleven tonnes of marijuana behind a false bulkhead, impounded, abandoned by owners who never turned up, and left to sink at her own mooring in 1984.

Dives here
2
Deepest
27.6 m
Water
salt
First · last
2012 · 2012

Revision 3 · changed 18 Oct 2026

History
  1. r3 18 Oct 2026 Photo size matches the file · Dennis Bakhuis
  2. r2 10 Oct 2026 Neutral wording · Dennis Bakhuis
  3. r1 10 Oct 2026 Imported from the personal log · Dennis Bakhuis

Site data © divelog-sites contributors (ODbL), descriptions and maps CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

1 map

Shallow terrace 0-5 mInner reef slopeSand channel ~30 mOuter reef↓30 mInner reef starts ~5 m↓40 mUsual route · 458 mYellow stonesHilma Hooker, 72 m, on her starboard side↓30 mPropeller and rudder↓32 mWheelhouse↓20 mCargo holds↓25 mBow↓30 mMooring (bow)Mooring (stern)Mooring (reef)N50 m
  • Entry / exit
  • Buoy
  • Point of interest
  • Marker
  • Wreck
  • Shoreline
  • Depth contour
  • Dive path
  • Wall / drop-off
  • Shallows
  • Coral / reef
  • Sand
  • Wreck footprint
  • Depth
Site map · 4 objects · 1 path · max 40 m

The Hilma Hooker (71.8 m x 11 m) on her starboard side in the sand channel between the inner and outer reef, 18 m at the top of the hull and 30-34 m at the sand, marked by three yellow moorings (bow, stern and one on the reef); shore entry at the yellow stones south end of the car park (Wikipedia, bonaire.com, chronic-wanderlust.com, scubadiving.com). The wreck's position is from the Wikidata point, on the sand channel; she is drawn parallel to the channel (147 deg), with the bow south and the propeller north as most sources say, though bonaire.com puts the bow north-west. Outer-reef width and the reef mooring spot are assumptions. Coastline and dive-site markers © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Positions are approximate.

Map © divelog-sites contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

The ship

Built at Van der Giessen de Noord in the Netherlands and launched on 21 May 1951 as the Midsland. Over the next thirty years she went through five more names: Mistral (1964), William Express (1967), Anna C. (1975), Doric Express (1976) and finally Hilma Hooker in 1979 — a sequence of renames that is, in the shipping world, a flag in itself.

The contraband

In mid-1984 she broke down at sea and was towed into Kralendijk. Drug enforcement agencies were already watching her. At the dock her captain could not produce registration papers, so she was searched, and behind a false bulkhead the authorities found 25 000 lb — about 11 000 kg — of marijuana.

Ship and crew were detained while the authorities looked for the owners. Nobody came. No owner was ever identified, and with nobody responsible for her she simply rotted at the dock and began taking on water.

The sinking

On 7 September 1984 she was moved off the dock to an anchorage — a sand channel between two reefs, deliberately chosen so that when she went, she would not land on coral. On the morning of 12 September 1984 water came in through her lower portholes. At 09:08 she rolled onto her starboard side, and within two minutes she was gone.

The dive

She lies on her starboard side in about 30 m, 72 m long, in that same sand channel with the double reef on either side. The hull is intact, the holds are open, and the superstructure is penetrable. Tarpon patrol her, and she is thoroughly covered in sponges now.

Two dives, 11 and 13 August 2012.

Image: Diver at Hilma Hooker wreck.jpg — Clark Anderson/Aquaimages, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

Photos

Dived here with

Kim

Nearby sites

2 dives at Hilma Hooker

  1. 13 Aug 2012 with Kim wrecknight date13 Aug 2012 depth25.9 m time45 min water—
  2. 11 Aug 2012 with Kim wreck date11 Aug 2012 depth27.6 m time43 min water—

Sources